If you’ve installed a reasonably up-to-date version of vi(m), there is a script called less.sh in your $VIMRUNTIME directory, which acts as an replacement of less providing syntax highlighting.
To use this script, you just have to follow these simple steps:
For the lazy like me:
sudo ln -s `ls /usr/share/vim/vim*/macros/less.sh | tail -n 1` /usr/bin/vless
For the diligent:
- Launch vi and type :echo $VIMRUNTIME.
This shows you the path to the vi files.
On my Ubuntu box this is /usr/share/vim/vim74. - Now create the symlink:
sudo ln -s /usr/share/vim/vim74/macros/less.sh /usr/bin/vless.
If you’ve got another path before, you have to edit this command appropriately. - That’s all. Now vless acts fairly similar to less with paging and now with syntax highlighting:
vless myfile.py
Of course, vless can also be used within shell pipes:
wget -qO- http://www.hartzenberg.net/blog/feed | vless
Props to this guy!